Technique – die cutting

Featuring die cutting

Christmas in July 2024 – Day 1

Happy Monday everyone!

It’s that time of year again! LucieG’s Christmas in July! Woohoo! How can we be at the start of July already? The first six months of the year have flown by!

Since 2019, I’ve dedicated July to Christmas cardmaking and had always felt thatI reaped the benefits in November/December when life always seems to get super busy! Up until last year, I had a good supply of cards to send to all my friends and didn’t stress about making them before the posting deadline.

However, last year, I noticed that I ended up making a lot more cards to post out in late November last year because many of my Christmas in July cards didn’t really seem ‘right’. It’s difficult to explain, but by November many of the cards seemed a little too… engineered. Some were larger than I wanted to mail, others were a little too busy – I know many of my recipients prefer my CAS cards.

So this year, I will be making Christmas in July cards with this in mind. It may be that I don’t participate in certain challenges but that’s OK! I just want to have fun with some amazing products and create cards that I KNOW I will want to send in November!

First up, for Christmas in July Day 1, I’m playing along with the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge .

I used a couple of older Memory Box dies – the Fresh Pine Curved Border and the Quiet Cabin Landscape. I actually cut the border die on the reverse of my glitter card and then flipped it over so that the curve aligned more closely with the sketch. There’s a bit of artistic licence with the strip in the sketch though as I used the Santa sleigh from Spellbinders’ Simon’s Snow Globe die set and a few die cut stars instead!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

All Smiles 2024

Hello everyone!

Today I’m sharing cards I made with some products kindly sent to me by Penny Black from their new All Smiles release. This is a truly gorgeous release with some amazing stamps and dies. I was very excited to play with the teacups and flowers stamp sets – although I have to confess that I was a little apprehensive about colouring the larger images. But having spent a lovely morning with my paint brush, I think I had just fallen out of practice with water colouring! Before I started, I decided that I wouldn’t put any pressure on myself to create a specific card and would just practice with my different watercolours, card panels and paint brushes. It was such a relaxing time and I surprised myself with some images that I felt comfortable including on a card. So if you’re feeling like me, just focus on enjoying the colouring process and you may surprise yourself!

So onto the cards! First up is a card using a cup from the Brew-tea-full stamp set (31-063), cut with the Brew-tea-full Cut Out co-ordinating die (51-823) and coloured with a liquid watercolour. I love all the blooms in both flower sets that are in this release but in the end I chose to use the daisies from the Blooms stamp set (31-064) that I had coloured with a distress reinker. I cut the image with the Blooms Cut Out coordinating die set (51-824).

For the background, I embossed a panel of coloured card using the Rounded embossing folder (65-016), adhered it to a card base cut from the same colour card. Once I adhered the images, I felt it needed a little something extra so I added a branch, Airy (51-423), cut from glitter card and a small strip of green to ground the cup.

My second card also uses a cup from the Brew-tea-full stamp set (31-063), cut with the co-ordinating die (51-823) and coloured with a distress reinker. This time I wanted to do something a bit different, so used a Penny Black stamp from a few years ago as my inspiration – the stamp is called Sweet Sip (30-905) you can see the card I made with that fabulous image here.

I chose a kitty from the fun Fancy Cat dies set (51-347) and the gorgeous Dignified die (51-821) and coloured them with distress inks. I blended some Tumbled Glass distress ink on my card base and adhered the elements – I ended up separating the leafy branches when arranging the elements in my teacup. I added a leafy border from the Garden Edgers die set (51-549) to ground the teacup plus a sentiment from the Love & Light mini stamp set (31-037) and some stickles and sequins!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Sunset Potpourri Flowers

Hello again everyone!

This week’s Color Throwdown challenge has a sunset combo which is quite similar to last week’s – yellow, orange and red (instead of fuchsia) so I was determined to create something that I felt was quite different to last week.

I chose a white base, oriented it as a landscape card, pulled out the Potpourri Flower Set die by Poppystamps and got crafty!

I quickly coloured the flowers with distress inks but I have to confess that it took me FAR TOO LONG to arrange the die cut flowers…. I love this style of card but I can never seem to get the positioning right when I create them!

Eventually, I found an arrangement that I felt was OK, adhered the die cuts and added some coordinating Nuvo Jewel Drops to the centres of the flowers. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Festive tree

 

Happy Festive Friyay!

Today I’m playing along with the current colour challenge over at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown!

When I saw that this week’s colour palette was green, white and gold I knew I would have to make a card with a tree!

I decided to use the larger tree from the Concord & 9th Cloche die set that I bought before last Christmas and oddly used for the February Colour Challenge! I cut it from Craft Consortium paper and then die cut elements from glitter and mirror card. for the card base, I used a Simply Graphic die and a few hand punches.

To complete my card, I added a sentiment from a Hero Arts set from 2005!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Cardinal in June

Happy Festive Friyay!

My training for Christmas in July continues today with my card for the current sketch challenge over at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown!

What a great sketch! I had originally planned to use a snowflake die set for my focal point but soon realised that the image would be too big – so I pivoted and pulled out the new-to-me Poppystamps Bird House Pop Up Easel die set that I picked up in a sale earlier this year. I have to confess that I bought the entire set because I LOVED that cardinal die!

I created the background strip using some coloured card, a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder and tons of distress oxide ink. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.